As people increasingly rely on user devices, such as smartphones, in their daily lives, the temptation to access a user device while driving continues to cause accidents, injuries, and even deaths. Almost every state in the United States has passed laws prohibiting or limiting phone use while driving. However, these laws have not been able to overcome the convenience of multitasking while driving. As a result, many automotive accidents are still caused by drivers distracted by their smartphone.
Some software applications attempt to enforce rudimentary safeguards to prevent driver interaction with a user device while driving. For example, some applications use Global Positioning System (GPS) information to determine that a user is traveling in a vehicle. If the user attempts to type within the application while the vehicle is moving, the application can block the user from typing unless they indicate that they are a passenger, rather than a driver. But a driver can easily circumvent this safeguard by simply indicating that they are a passenger, regardless of whether they are driving or not.
Current systems do not provide a way to monitor and control device usage with respect to driving. Instead, each application is left to individually detect driving and self-regulate its own functionality. Some applications do not attempt to detect driving at all, and others have limited detection functionality. Because individual applications are responsible for detecting driving and implementing safeguards, it is very difficult for an administrator to govern device usage across multiple applications with respect to driving.
Further, the issue of determining whether a user is a driver or a passenger has not been solved in a viable manner. Current systems either need data that is unavailable to a user device (such as vehicle sensor data), or rely on a user self-regulating his or herself in a manner already proven to be ineffective.
As a result, a need exists for reliable detection of driving based on information gathered by or from a user device, including determining whether a user is a driver or passenger in a vehicle. Additionally, a need exists for appropriately limiting access to a user device in response to detecting that the user is driving.